Green Machine: Tesla's new recycling programme

If you want to recycle your AA batteries, you can just pop along to your nearest supermarket and drop them into the bin provided.

But dragging the used lithium-ion battery from your Tesla Roadster to the nearest recycling depot might prove a bit trickier.

Now Tesla Motors, based in Palo Alto, California, has announced a European recycling scheme for its batteries, in which it will take them off your hands at no charge, and convert them into reusable materials.

Research last year by Dominic Notter at the Swiss federal laboratories for materials testing and research in Dubendorf found that of the moderate 15 per cent batteries contribute to the overall greenhouse gas footprint of electric cars, half of this comes from the refining and manufacture of the battery's raw materials, copper and aluminium. A further 2.3 per cent comes from production of lithium.

Tesla claims that it can save at least 70 per cent of these emissions by recovering and refining the metals used in its batteries. The car maker is working with materials technology firm Umicore, based in Brussels, Belgium, to recycle the materials into an alloy that can then be refined into cobalt, nickel, and other metals.

The cobalt will then be used to make lithium cobalt oxide and resold to battery manufacturers, according to Tesla's Kurt Kelty.

Another by-product of the recycling process will be a "slag" containing lithium and other metals refined from the initial alloy. The slag will be used as a construction material, to replace some of the raw materials used in cement manufacturing. Since cement production involves heating raw materials to around 1450 °C, replacing even a portion should also help to reduce the cement industry's greenhouse gas emissions, says Tesla.